Bilbo was an incredibly clever dog — the sort of dog who, when you
switch on the hose for his favourite game of getting drenched in the
garden, first checks that he really couldn't switch the tap on himself
next time! His intelligence meant that he learnt new things very
fast. Of course, he also tended to get bored with them fairly
quickly — he was doing very reliable "B" scent within a couple
of weeks, but another month later he became more interested in the
smells on the ground...

Being a Schnauzer meant that he absolutely loved showing off! He loved
his time in the breed ring, although due to his unexpected castration
in 2006, he was retired from the show rings quite early. We then
focused on his agility which he really enjoyed, his contacts were
often his downfall, but if he made them, he frequently got a place in
agility. He was surprisingly fast for a non collie, and boy is it
different running a Schnauzer to a Border Collie! He loved the lower
jump height in the US, I'd never seen him run that fast, and every run
was a bit of a surprise for me as I didn't know how far I'll manage to
get anymore! We started entering Standard with Bilbo — he'd had
two years of getting every single contact (as we only did them in
training and he never competed in Standard), so we were keeping our
fingers crossed that that will transfer. And it did! He Q'd in his
first three Standard runs for his NA title (his fourth run, he decided
that it was time to demonstrate that he can really do those contacts
and he did all four sets ... on a course that was only supposed to
have three sets of them!).

Bilbo competed in obedience in the UK, retiring when he got his first
trophy (as life was never going to get better ☺), but he got to
compete again in the US with his best friend Bri. Despite pulling out
a few surprises ("what, no food in the ring? And you expect me to do
what?"), he got his CD in three shows ☺

My Beard, my Boo, my Blob, my Beep-Beep — he has left a huge hole, and I still can't believe I'll never see his stump wag again.